Gnanakumar Visvanathan

Gnanakumar Visvanathan is an associate professor of accounting in the Costello College of Business at George Mason University. He teaches courses in Financial Accounting at the undergraduate, MBA and MSA programs. Prior to joining George Mason University, Visvanathan served on the faculty at George Washington University. His research has been published in The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, Accounting Horizons, Journal of Accounting, Auditing, Finance, Journal of American Taxation Association, Accounting and Business Research, Journal of Financial Statement Analysis, and International Journal of Auditing. He currently serves on the Editorial board of Accounting Horizons.

Research Interests

• Auditing
• Audit Committees
• Corporate Governance

Education

• PhD - Accounting, New York University
• CA, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
• BA, University of Madras

Research and Awards

• Published the paper titled, “Is information in deferred tax valuation allowance useful in predicting the firm's ability to continue as a going concern incremental to MD&A disclosures and auditor's going concern opinions?” in International Journal of Disclosure & Governance in 2021.  
• Published the paper titled, “Auditor Going Concern Opinions and FIN 48 Reserves” (co-authored with J.K. Aier) in Journal of Managerial Issues in 2019.  
• Published the paper titled “Do auditor provided tax-services enhance or impair the value relevance of earnings?” (co-authored with Gopal Krishnan and Wei Yu) in the Journal of The American Taxation Association in 2013.  
• Published the paper titled “Is There an Association Between Earnings Management and Auditor-Provided Tax Services?” (co-authored with Gopal Krishnan) in the Journal of The American Taxation Association in 2012. 
• Published the paper titled “Do Auditors Price Audit Committee’s Expertise? The Case of Accounting vs. Non-Accounting Financial Experts” (co-authored with Gopal Krishnan) in the Journal of Accounting, Auditing, & Finance in 2009.  
• Published the paper titled “Does the SOX Definition of an Accounting Expert Matter? The Association between Audit Committee Directors' Expertise and Conservatism” (co-authored with Gopal Krishnan) in Contemporary Accounting Research in 2009. 
• Published the paper titled “The relationship between auditors, corporate governance and reporting internal control in the post Sarbanes-Oxley era” (co-authored with Gopal Krishnan) in International Journal of Auditing in 2007.  
• Published the paper titled “An Empirical Investigation of 'Closeness to Cash' as a determinant of Earnings Response Coefficients” in Accounting & Business Research in 2006. 
• Published the paper titled “The Information Content of the Deferred Tax Valuation Allowance” (co-authored with Krishna Kumar) in The Accounting Review in 2003. 
• Published the paper titled “Charitable Organizations' Strategies and Program Spending Ratios” (co-authored with William Baber and Andrea Roberts) in Accounting Horizons in 2001.